Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

Gateway (1977) may well be Pohl's finest book to date, but this untidy sequel isn't even in the running. It starts from the same premise: the Gateway cache of interstellar ships, the long-deserted work of the mysterious "Heechee" civilization. Humans can operate the Heechee ships only by pulling an unfathomable control and hoping to come out near a habitable planet rather than (as frequently happens) disappearing forever. Robinette Broadhead, sole survivor of the ill-fated Gateway mission chronicled in the first book, is now cosponsoring attempts to investigate other Heechee remains, hoping to find a way of turning cometary debris into food for overpopulated Earth. One of the Heechee artifacts proves not only to house a fifteen-year-old human of unknown origin, but to provide a stepping-stone to a larger Heechee station which holds the key to the mysterious disappearance of several dozen Gateway missions and a pattern of ancient Heechee visitations of Earth. No less promising a story than that of Gateway - but whereas the first book was entirely narrated by Broadhead in his capacity of tormented analysand, this one parcels out events among a needless profusion of narrators and points of view, and adds the insult of restoring Broadhead to uninteresting mental health and a still more uninteresting wife. Pohl continues to demonstrate unfailing verve and intelligence, but here they seem strangely extraneous. A major disappointment. (Kirkus Reviews)